“We must create jobs from the scratch: that is what life dictates us”

-A hard-working and creative person can overcome challenges, especially when this person has a support, Anahit Veranyan says, the president of the “Mkhitar Gosh” agricultural cooperative operating in Gosh community of Tavush marz. In her words, everything began in 2014 when a greenhouse of 400 sq.m. was constructed in their village within Oxfam Armenia’s “Improving Food Security” project. The greenhouse has opened up great opportunities for women members of the cooperative up until today. They have fresh vegetables for use from early spring to late fall. They mainly grow tomatoes, cucumbers both for fresh use and for pickles, chili peppers, eggplants and a variety of greens. Ms. Anahit says their income is not high, so they try to install heating in the greenhouse to be able to operate it full year and receive more harvest.

Tourists visiting Gosh also buy the harvests grown in the greenhouse. Anahit assures us that the demand for organic vegetables is high so the increasing harvest is immediately consumed in the village.

-Our production attracts consumers by its taste. We received 2.5 tons of harvest in the first, and 3 tons in the second year of the greenhouse operation. We mainly grow tomatoes. In summer, tourists visiting the Goshavank monastery, just get crazy from the smell of our tomatoes sold in the nearby shop, and want to buy it no matter what, Anahit says.

Ms. Anahit is a commodity specialist. Although she has shop in the village center, where she sells the harvest both from the cooperative and her home-adjacent land plot, she prefers spending her day in the cooperative with other women. She acknowledges that she became a business woman due to the cooperative and she continues learning and sharing her knowledge with other fellow women.

Ms. Anahit does not get tired from her work. After finishing it at the cooperative, she hurries, gets a little rest and then spends the rest of her energy by working on their home-adjacent land plot. Though her family members help her, she knows well her tasks. In her rare free time, she makes beautiful paper dolls, dress them with national costumes or weaves colorful nets for wine bottles, together with her beloved daughter-in-law. Anahit is confident that these hand-made accessories will be of big interest to tourists. And she is right: those accessories bring additional income to her family during the tourism high season. She thinks that they should use the opportunities that the tourism development in their region provides.

-You can find thousands of flowers in our mountains. We gather and sell them. We should not ignore whatever the nature gives us, but use it wisely. I have more business ideas and I want to apply to village municipality or Marz Govern’s Office for providing me with a venue where gifted women can weave, sew, bake under my guidance. We can sell all products during the high season. We must create jobs from the scratch: that is what life dictates us, Anahit says.